@EdWorkingPaper{ai22-634,
title = "Not the Great Equalizer? Local Economic Mobility and Inequality Effects for the Establishment of U.S. Universities",
author = "Lauren C. Russell, Michael J. Andrews",
institution = "Annenberg Institute at Brown University",
number = "634",
year = "2022",
month = "August",
URL = "http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai22-634",
abstract = {We exploit historical natural experiments to test whether universities increase economic mobility and equality. We use "runner-up’" counties that were strongly considered to become university sites but were not selected for as-good-as-random reasons as counterfactuals for university counties. University establishment causes greater intergenerational income mobility but also increases cross-sectional income inequality. We highlight four findings to explain this seeming paradox: universities hollow out the local labor market and provide greater opportunities to achieve top incomes, both of which increase cross-sectional inequality, and increase educational attainment and connections to high-SES people, which prevent inequality from perpetuating into intergenerational immobility.},
}